While I do believe there are dramatic differences between the two parties on social issues, when it comes to economic-interest legislation, both parties have loads of members who are giant cash suckers willing to mow down their constituents if they think they can keep the money they get from big special interests.

I’ve usually found the longer they’ve been in office, the worse they get. Too often, they lose touch with why they are in office in the first place.

The corporate money machine routinely screams louder than consumers do. Back in 1992 when I did a weekly radio news program about the cable and satellite industry, I was telling listeners that many politicians will gladly vote with the big cable companies and cash their checks. The only time they won’t is when howls of protest from constituents make it more expensive to take the money from Comcast than to do the right thing and vote for the people in your district.

I’ll never forget when I called Senator Al D’Amato’s (R-NY) office to lobby for passage of S.12, the 1992 Cable Act which stopped the parade of cable rate hikes (until they got deregulated again in 96). The woman who answered the phone asked me “who are you with?” I said I didn’t understand the question. She wanted to know what lobbying firm or company I was representing. I told her I was just a constituent — I was representing myself. She *literally* interrogated me, demanding to know “how did you get this (phone) number?”

The Capitol switchboard connected me, so all I can assume is that D’Amato had a special series of private numbers for his favorite special interests to call when issues warranted. I’m sure they were ready to hand over a corporate credit card number to underscore their points along the way.

As for Caswell County, it’s economically-challenged and I suspect that has a lot to do with why companies aren’t beating down the doors to provide service there.

I don’t doubt CenturyLink has provided some improved DSL service in areas where they already deliver it, but the bigger problem here is getting them to extend service to those not served already.

The speeds your relatives are getting are certainly better than what Frontier could manage for me less than a mile from the city line – 3.1Mbps. They lost my business for a backup Internet solution over that. I won’t pay them an out-the-door price literally higher than what Time Warner charges for service consistently 3+ times faster (especially as long as that silly 5GB usage allowance remains).

That said, the way the senators acted in this case is downright despicable. This is from someone who probably will not vote in a Democrat candidate for *anything* in the foreseeable future because, frankly, there are more important things that politicians should be doing than obstructing progress in telecom, whether the networks are city-run or privately owned.

Anyway, what’s the geography like in Caswell County? It might be too woody for efficient wireless service but if not then someone could come in and give decent-speed access to residents with a low enough initial investment that it would be possible to do in spite of what CenturyLink wants on the screwing customers front…